When the news of the winding up order of Cork City came through to the MNS office on Monday, our original preliminary running order for the programme went out the window.
Plan B, had always been in the pipeline for such an eventuality. Having said that, the early vibes we were getting from the courts for the club were positive, but unfortunately they proved to be unfounded.
Although a stay on the winding up has been granted until this coming Friday, the prospects of the club surviving seem very gloomy indeed.
Perhaps it's going to take something as shocking as this to make everyone involved in the game here to sit up and realise that wages which have historically been paid to players over the last number of Celtic Tiger seasons, are not sustainable in the current environment, and players, managers and club officials must try to operate within structures that are manageable.
Damien told us that one player at Cork had been commanding a wage of over €3,000. With fortnightly gates of about 3,000 souls going through the turnstiles at Turners Cross, you don't have to be Carol Vorderman to work out that the mathematics of that situation don't add up.
Of course players are entitled to secure as high a wage as possible in a free market, but club owners and boards of directors have to realise that the survival of the club is ultimately more important than a shiny trophy on the sideboard, especially when it gets to the stage that they have to flog the sideboard to pay the players wages.
The potential in a city the size of Cork is massive. The Cork public are sports mad, whether it's gaelic football, hurling, rugby or soccer, the sporting public will get out and support the club or county. For that reason, I think if they do wind Cork City up, there is still tremendous potential for soccer in the city.
That might seem like a strange thing to say in the current circumstances, but if it takes a season or two in the first division to rebuild a new Cork team, working off a clean slate, with perhaps a supporters collective like FORAS as the driving force behind the team, not unlike the Shamrock Rovers model which is proving very successful in Tallaght, maybe that's the solution in the medium term.
It was interesting to chat with Pat Morley and Damien about the situation in Cork, because both love the club and are very sad to see it in its current plight, but they felt that the Arkaga takeover of City, which at first promised so much, was the start of the end for the club, with profligate spending, and wage bills that were off the scale.
Damien told me about one player who was going to Cork not too long ago, to negotiate a contract. This player was moving from a situation where he was earning €650 a week at his then club, and was hoping to up his wages to €850 a week. In fact before any negotiations began, he was offered €1350 a week. That's an extra €2,000 a month, an extra €24,000 a year, and that's a lot of posteriors on seats over the course of a season.
It's a disaster for the image of the league which is fighting a battle for the hearts and minds of non-attendees at the moment.
How dispiriting to see Brian Dobson question Tony O'Donoghue on the Six-One news about the possibility of other League of Ireland clubs facing a similar scenario in the future. Unfortunately Tony couldn't give Brian a guarantee that we won't see more of this before seasons end. For those trusted with marketing the League, just another setback, and another hurdle to overcome in the coming weeks and months.
As Damien said on Monday's programme, it's a pity that we had to spend so long talking about the Cork City debacle, when so many positive things have been happening recently. Derry and St Pat's advance in the Europa League, Bohemians great result and performance in Austria, (I know they went out last week, but it was close and they will feel somewhat hard done by).
Great crowds for that Bohemians and Salzburg European tie, the Bohs and Rovers derby, likewise the Louth derby, not to mention the new fans for the league after the exposure of the Rovers-Real Madrid friendly last week.
It's not all doom and gloom surrounding the league and yet, the general mood is very downbeat at the moment.
Mind you, if you'd seen Johnny McDonnell's impersonation of Sybil Mulcahy in his version of 'Ex-pro's-e' interviewing Pat Morley in the office before the programme you would have got a laugh. I know Johnny is keen to get back to work having enjoyed some time off since he left St.Pat's but I'm not sure if his trial for Expose, or 'Ex-pro's-e' as he prefers his version to be called, would cut the mustard.
Our editor Brummie Steve was away this week, so the show went very smoothly, (sorry Steve) with Longford's finest Eamonn Donohoe taking the reins. He did a very good job pulling everything together at short notice, although he forgot to tell Stephen McGuinness to turn his TV down to avoid howl around when the PFAI General Secretary was on the phone to us. No harm done.
Certainly judging by the amount of emails which have arrived already to the MNS email address mns@rte.ie it would seem, not surprisingly that many fans of not just Cork City but the league in general are very upset by what's happening to City at the moment, and hopefully we'll have a chance to get to some of those on next week's programme.
We have also received some great photos over the last few days, but again because the pressure on time on Monday night, we weren't able to show them, but again hopefully we'll get back to them next week.
If you can think of any other League of Ireland lookalikes let us know. We particularly liked the photo of referee Alan Kelly and Bray's Chris Deans this week sent in by viewer, Michael Tierney.
If you think a player, manager, referee, or even TV presenter look like somebody else, email, phone or write to us and we'll compare and contrast. And yes I know I look a bit like Tony Cousins so you needn't bother with that one!
